I consider myself quite a brownie connoisseur — I have loved brownies since I was a child when my mom would take me to the mall to go shopping on the weekend. As a treat, she would buy me one of the Mrs. Fields Double Fudge Brownies, and I would cherish that thing for days, pinching little pieces off and rolling them into little balls to eat one at a time. So me and brownies go way back.
Given this obvious expertise in brownie eating, I was very curious to see if Alvin Zhou’s 100-hour brownie was really worth it. I mean, who wants to wait four whole stinkin’ days for a brownie, especially when you have kids!
So what I did was I made this recipe and baked a portion of it right away in order to see the difference from the second batch which I allowed to rest following Alvin’s directions.
Essentially what you will be doing, and what I did, is making a brownie batter which you will let rest for a period of three days; after that you will bake it; and then you will let it rest for another twenty-four hours to allow the flavors to develop.
100-Hour Chocolate Brownie
Equipment
- hand mixer
- 9" brownie pan
- freezer
- oven
- refrigerator
Ingredients
Browned butter
- 1 C. butter 2 sticks
- 1 T. espresso powder
- 2 T. coffee ice cubes
Batter
- 4 eggs
- 1 T. vanilla paste You can substitute the same amount of vanilla extract.
- 2¼ C. sugar
- 1/2 C. cocoa powder
- 1½ C. all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. Kosher salt
- 1 tbsp. espresso powder
- 8 oz. 75% dark chocolate, melted Cooled to room temperature.
- 3½ oz. milk chocolate, chopped
- 3½ oz. 75% dark chocolate, chopped
Topping
- 6 oz. 75% dark chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- In a nonstick sauce pan, melt butter on medium/ow heat until golden. Be careful not to burn the butter.
- Once the butter is golden, turn off the heat and add espresso powder. Add coffee ice cubes; melt completely, allowing the brown butter to cool
- In a large bowl, add eggs, vanilla paste, and sugar; and beat with a hand mixer on medium/low speed until light and fluffy. The batter should form a ribbon.
- Sift in cocoa powder, espresso, and salt.
- Use a spatula to stir in the browned butter mixture.
- Next add the melted chocolate; and sift in the flour, folding gently.
- Add the two types of chopped chocolate.
- Line a 9” x 13” pan with parchment paper. Add the batter into the prepared pan and top with the chopped dark chocolate shards.
- Wrap the pan in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to rest for 72 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Bake batter for 30 minutes.
- Remove the brownies from the oven and wrap tightly with aluminum foil. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Remove brownies from the freezer and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Is It Worth 100 Hours?
So, is it worth waiting a hundred hours for a brownie? Did this four day process improve the flavor of the brownies enough to warrant such an excruciating wait? Nah. This tested this recipe with out the 72-hour resting period and I found it too bitter for my tastes. I had hoped that the 72-hour resting period would mellow out the bitter dark chocolate and coffee flavors, but it was still too bitter. The brownies were beautiful though, but in my opinion not worth the 100 hour wait. I you still want brownies why not try these tasty mochi brownies.
Are the calories on this recipe right? 13,000 cals seems like a lot for one brownie.
Haha I skipped to the end to see if you thought it was worth it! I think I’ll
Make the mocha ones instead.
Can I use a 8 inch pan?
“Are the calories on this recipe right? 13,000 cals seems like a lot for one brownie.”
The nutrition also says Carbohydrates: 56456g and Sugar: 25020g. That’s 25kg of sugar. That’s insanity.
So, I made these but made some adjustments because I’m lazy and I hate recipes that can’t be made in one pot/ bowl.
Emmy is right about the bitterness of this recipe. I only added the instant coffee to the browned butter and did not add the other amount to the batter part of the recipe. Depending on the type of instant coffee you use, you may need to dissolve the granules in a couple tablespoons of warm water. If you need to do this, I wouldn’t add the ice cubes.
After adding the coffee to the butter, I added the cacao powder to the butter, stirred until homogeneous, and then added the 8oz of semisweet chocolate to the warm butter mixture to let it melt the chocolate for me while simultaneously cooling the butter.
I then added the vanilla, salt, sugar, eggs, and flour (in that order) to the chocolate/butter mixture. I didn’t add any other chopped chocolate except a little on top for a some pizazz.
Also, I’m impatient and baked the batter right away instead of letting it age.
And, guess what? They were better and easier than the original recipe.
I have calculated the kcal manually: it is not 13000, but it’s 7900 kcal and I’m shocked. The whole brownie without chopped chocolate is around 5700 kcal. With added chopped chocolate (which is 370g), it reaches 7600-7900 kcal.
Is the T. teaspoon or tablespoon? Some parts of the recipe clarify tsp or tbsp while others just say T.
Also, Alvin has 2 1/4 cups sugar while you have 1 1/4 cups sugar. Which amount is it? Thank you!
Fix the typo. It’s 2 1/4 cup sugar. Just wasted a whole lot of time. Your recipe isnt right
Pretty disappointed in this recipe. I wanted to make this to the letter to test it out, and now I feel like I’ve wasted three days! Of course your brownies were too bitter, it appears you not only added an extra coffee cube but you removed nearly half the sugar. Wish you had mentioned you had significantly altered the recipe. I don’t feel like I’ve truly tested the recipe out without actually following the correct recipe. That mass amount of missing sugar will not only impact the flavor but the texture.
I recommend skipping this recipe. Taste Of Home has a printed version on their website if you don’t want to watch the video version and get the real recipe.
I love this recipe, I also love how you screwed up the sugar amount, which is probably why you don’t like it, and instead of redoing it and giving an honest or authentic review you just edited the listed amount here without redoing your review.
the sugar in metric must be changed too. anyway. the cake isnt as intense if u add half a teaspoon espresso and a more strong coffee cube. and use 55% chopped chocolate. then 75% on top and melted
you left out a whole cup and a 1/4 of sugar, doubled the amount of coffee ice cubes, this tasted like shit. wasted my time. fix your recipe.
Sloppily written recipe – not all of the ingredients are listed in the correct order nor are they 1:1 to the original recipe.
Might recommend using this recipe just to read the instructions instead of being forced to watch them on youtube but otherwise – SKIP!